Siena basketball looking toward future in July

New head coach Jamion Christian and staff enter crucial NCAA recruiting period

Siena men's basketball coach Jamion Christian speaks during the Times Union's Inaugural High School Sports Awards at the Hearst Media Center on Wednesday, June 13, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union) less

Siena men's basketball coach Jamion Christian speaks during the Times Union's Inaugural High School Sports Awards at the Hearst Media Center on Wednesday, June 13, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times ... more

Siena men's basketball coach Jamion Christian speaks during the Times Union's Inaugural High School Sports Awards at the Hearst Media Center on Wednesday, June 13, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union) less

Siena men's basketball coach Jamion Christian speaks during the Times Union's Inaugural High School Sports Awards at the Hearst Media Center on Wednesday, June 13, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times ... more

Jamion Christian will hit the road on Wednesday for the start of the July evaluation period, a crucial time in NCAA basketball recruiting.

For the first time, he'll be doing it as the head coach of the Siena men's basketball team.

Christian is flying down to South Carolina for the Peach Jam, a Nike Elite Youth Basketball event held in North Augusta. It's the first tournament at which Christian will represent Siena since being hired on May 2.

He's already brought in five players for next year's team. Now he and assistants Carmen Maciariello, Graham Bousley and Ryan Devlin are setting their sights on the Class of 2019, players who will be high school seniors. At the moment, Siena will have four scholarships to offer to that class.

"It'll be good to get a chance to watch them be able to play among their friends in a very competitive environment,'' Christian said. "As the head coach at Siena, it's exciting to be on the road and have a chance to look into the future a little bit and see where we can continue to grow our program."

"It's a large class with four guys, so we've got to do a great job on that class,'' Christian said.

Christian plans on making four stops in five days this week, including tournaments in Pennsylvania and New York. His assistants will also be bouncing around the country and then they'll meet as a staff in Loudonville on Monday to discuss what they saw.

To a large degree, they'll looking at the 30 recruits that Siena already had on campus for unofficial visits during the month of June.

"We had a pretty historic month of June in terms of the number of prospects we were able to get to campus,'' Christian said. "Just the collection of guys we have on staff here, they've just done such a good job of just getting kids to campus, so it's great we've got a strong familiarity with the players we're going to be watching."

It's notable the Albany City Rocks will be playing at the Peach Jam. Christian has three former City Rocks employees on his staff (Maciariello, Devlin and direction of basketball operations Harley Fuller) and has already signed three former City Rocks players for this coming season: guard Jalen Pickett, Syracuse transfer guard Braedon Bayer and forward Sloan Seymour of Shaker High.

All three are New York natives.

"It's important to see the kids in the area, let the kids know where Siena is,'' Christian said. "We can't make that known just by sitting here on campus. We have to go see them and let them know how we feel about them."

Christian said he should be able to evaluate players at these tournaments in the same way he did during his previous six years leading Mount St. Mary's, even though Siena plays in a better mid-major conference. Christian pointed out some of the players he recruited to Mount St. Mary's ended up transferring to Kansas State, Miami, Texas and St. Bonaventure.

"There's something we're doing well that works,'' Christian said.

He said he relies heavily on statistics to evaluate players, for example, by their 3-point shooting percentage because his offense takes a lot of them.

"It's really driven by data and numbers and I think it works,'' he said. "Our evaluation process is unique than how most places do it."

At the same time, Christian said he's trying to observe a player's intangibles in a tournament setting.

"How high a guy jumps, how fast a guy runs, can he block shots, we try to look at those things, and obviously they're important,'' he said. "But we're also trying to look at how the prospect is, whether he's accepting coaching or running after balls. Just trying to get a strong understanding of who this person is by how they play. Every game you play is like a portrait. Even if it's your third game on a long day, what are you going to be like? Kind of looking at all those little insights."

The July recruiting period runs from Wednesday through Sunday, July 18 to July 22 and July 25 to July 29.

Of course, after Siena evaluates these recruits, the Saints still have to sign them.

"There's evaluating talent and seeing if they can fit and play for you and help you win championships, and then there's recruiting," Christian said. "They're very different."